Absorption of crystal/amorphous interfacial dislocations during in situ TEM nanoindentation of an Al thin film on Si

Indentation of an Al film cross-section in situ in a transmission electron microscope at room temperature provides a direct observation of the absorption of threading dislocations by the metal/amorphous interface. The process occurs at a stress of about 100 MPa, a value that has been both calculated using finite-element modelling and directly measured from the dislocation radii. These results indicate that the strength of metallic thin films on oxidized substrates may therefore be weakly dependent on threading and interfacial dislocations.